#moonlight chicken gong

[telomeke]

MOONLIGHT CHICKEN – FUN WITH THE NAMES

Not meaning to take away from all the big emotions in Moonlight Chicken, but they were really having fun with the names weren't they? 😊

JimBeam caused the biggest hangover for our dear protagonist uncle. And their furkid came about because, well, Jim + Beam = Jimbo.

Also, going back in time, can you imagine little siblings Jim and Jam running around their family farm? How cute are those names for a pair of little rascals! 😂

When I first started writing this post, it was because I thought the wordplay in the examples above was a bit of fun. But remembering how Pat and Pran's names in Bad Buddy were also able to represent deeper layers of meaning (write-up linked here) I took a closer look at some of the other names in Moonlight Chicken.

Here's what I've found – some of it's fun, some of it's heavier, and some are probably just the product of my fevered, moonlight-induced delirium, so be warned! 😉

First up is this guy, Wen's good friend Gong–

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.5 [3I4] 4.12

The Thai spelling of Gong's name (ก้อง) can be seen on Wen's mobile at Ep.5 [1I4] 16.16, and it translates to resonant. And the idea of a resounding gong (the percussion instrument, that in East and Southeast Asia was also used to signal announcements as well as in music) does fit rather well with Gong's depiction in the show. He's shown to us as kind of an unfiltered loudmouth, and this is established early on when his indiscreet nail-and-bail advice to Wen in the gym locker room was broadcast to everyone else there. 😂

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.1 [3I4] 7.12

This pun also works across many languages, where the word gong (the instrument) exists in homologous versions – in English, Malay/Indonesian, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Portuguese, German, Polish… but not in Chinese and only partially in Thai, ironically, where the word ฆ้อง (for the instrument) is pronounced more like khong. 🤷‍♂️ (Still similar though.)

There's also another possible pun that plays on the show's overlap with Chinese culture (remembering that Moonlight Chicken is heavily Thai-Chinese) – the Chinese dialect honorific Ah Gong (阿公/亞公) that many grandkids use to address their Chinese grandpa. (In Bad Buddy, you can hear Pat's mother use this term when talking to him about his grandfather, at Ep.10 [4/4] 11.14.) In Thai, this Chinese loanword is spelt differently from Gong's name (ก๋ง instead of ก้อง) and the tone is also different. However, the pronunciation of Gong's name is similar enough to Teochew (the predominant Chinese dialect group in Thailand) that I think the pun does work too.

Based on the above, in my head at least Gong the character is very much a caricature of a worldly-wise gramps, dispensing advice to the less-experienced Wen. He's even got the near-white hair to suit, and in the scene at Ep.5 [3I4] 3.36 he's also dressed in yellow, which in Thailand is often associated with a higher, wiser authority – a reference to the saffron robes of monks, and also to the current king and his father.

OK I'll shut up about Gong puns now – just as Moonlight Chicken's art direction told Gong the character to do later, via his wardrobe: 🤣

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.6 [4/4] 6.33

Now Li Ming's name is packed with many layers of meaning, and this makes him symbolic of one of the show's major themes (that of renewal and a fresh start in the future).

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.6 [1I4] 14.09

I've written about Li Ming's name in previous posts so I won't go into it again, but the posts with more info are linked here and here. (I'll probably write more about Li Ming's name in relation to the show as a whole later.)

I think of Heart's character as a metaphor for LGBTQ+ love – which may seem a little unusual, given that gay romances are at the core of the whole series.

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.5 [4/4] 9.46 – it's so powerful that Heart's parents aren't even in the frame, because it highlights the communication gulf that separates them; it's like he's talking to a void

However, I don't think LGBTQ+ love is really the central theme of Moonlight Chicken (and will post about this separately). Rather, the romances are there to help move the ship of themes along, without being the central message. But as in any Aof-driven show there will always be some sort of political statement in support of LGBTQ+ rights, and I think Heart was so named for this reason.

Heart is fully capable of love, a complete human being in that respect. Yet his parents saw him as deficient because of his deafness, withdrew themselves from him, and left him feeling quite unloved, lonely and sequestered – not so much out of shame perhaps, but more out of a misplaced desire to protect him I think (eyes on Bad Buddy's Dissaya here! 😡).

But Heart wasn't deficient as a human being, or any less than the people his parents were comparing him to – they isolated him simply because the language that most clearly communicated his innermost self was different from that of the majority, and they did not understand enough to cope with it. He wasn't voiceless – he simply spoke differently, using his hands (thus all the discourse around not using the word mute at Ep.5 [4/4] 8.04).

All Heart needed was understanding in order for his full, authentic self to flourish (which he got first from Li Ming, and is what the Jintanas finally gave to him when they took up sign language).

Do we need a stronger parallel for the experience of young queer people, whose hearts love differently from the cishet majority's, growing up in families that cannot or will not understand them? 💖

Saleng's name (ซาเล้ง) refers to three-wheeler vehicles (and saleng is an abbreviation of the full form รถเข็นซาเล้งสามล้อ). These are usually the pedal-powered tricycles used by rag-and-bone men (who load recyclable/saleable trash into the barrow sitting on two wheels at the front of their vehicle) or (sometimes) motorcycles that are equipped with sidecars (see this link here for some images). In an example of metonymy, the scrap-pickers who ride the salengs are also known as salengs themselves.

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.5 [4/4] 1.22

And this name is especially suited to Saleng the cheeky, rough-and-ready rascal in Moonlight Chicken – just like the man himself, the vehicle saleng is zippy, unbound by rules of the road and gainfully shoulders its burden, while scrap-picker salengs are used to constant hustle and hard work in their lives, ready to capitalize on any opportunity that they might happen to find.

One of the more important names in the series is the name of the diner, because it's the same as that of the show – พระจันทร์มันไก่ (visible on the lantern at the front), and it's pronounced something like phra jan man gai.

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.1 [1I4] 6.02

Phra jan means moon, where the phra part is a prefix used for revered persons, places or objects and the jan part is a word derived from Sanskrit that also means moon (and is a cognate with the Chandra/Chandran of many Indian/Sri Lankan names – e.g., சந்திரன் in Tamil – as well as candra in Balinese, Javanese and Indonesian, and cendera in Malay).

The man gai part is the same as that in khao man gai (ข้าวมันไก่), the Thai name for chicken rice. The literal translation for the name of this dish is chicken-fat rice, where man means oil/fat/grease, gai means chicken and khao means rice (adjectives or descriptors follow the noun in Thai). This name refers to the fact that the rice is given its deep savory flavor by sautéing it in chicken-fat (the famously flavorful schmaltz, for those familiar with Jewish-American cooking – see @waitmyturtles's encyclopedic post on khao man gai linked here if you'd like to delve into more culinary detail 👍).

You might think the most obvious translation of the diner's name would be the decidedly unglamorous Chicken-Fat Moon, but I don't think that's the only way it comes across in Thai. It was probably worded that way because it plays on the khao man gai served within, but the words do have other meanings too. The word man (มัน) in the diner's name can also mean joyful, enjoyable, flashing, shining, sparkling, glowing, bright, audacious or interesting. The words shining, glowing and bright are of course often associated with the moon, and in this light (pun unintended 😂) the translation Moonlight Chicken maybe isn't that far off (since phra jan man can also mean Shining/Glowing/Bright Moon).

But remembering that in the Thai language descriptors follow nouns, another possible reading of พระจันทร์มันไก่/phra jan man gai (at least to my non-Thai ears) is Glowing (or Joyful/Enjoyable/etc.) Moon of the Chicken (just as khao man gai is literally rice of the chicken-fat).

And if it's Glowing Moon of the Chicken, I think (bear with me on this) that the Chicken being referred to here is actually Jim (don't laugh). He's the main protagonist and the center of all the action in the series, so it wouldn't be surprising for him to be referenced in the title. (And I'm thinking of chicken in the sense of the living bird, not the food on a plate.)

Remembering that the full moon in Chinese tradition represents completeness in life, especially completeness of the family (referenced at the Mid-Autumn Festival of Ep.1, and written up here), we also see that Jim is haunted throughout the series by a home life that is incomplete (ever since he lost Beam), partly because he is still hanging on to the past. We are also told in the theme song that the moon represents the heart (see this write-up linked here) and I think Moonlight Chicken is very much about Jim's search to fill the hole in his, and render it complete again (despite his instincts to do the contrary).

So if Jim is the avian protagonist in the title (remembering that chicken is also a synonym for timorousness, even as we see Jim unwilling to take that bold step to remedying the emptiness in his life), he's very much domesticated fowl (and we're also shown how fastidiously he motherhens his brood – not just Li Ming and Saleng, but also the late-night dining crowd who come to him to be fed). Noting too that Jim was also from a distant rural farm also echoes this idea that he's very much a gai baan (ไก่บ้าน or domesticated fowl), not so much a gai aawn (ไก่อ่อน, literally tender chicken, slang for naïve greenhorn)…

Anyway Jim is not the only gai in the village (this isn't Llanddewi Brefi, Daffyd 😂). Of course, the other gai is Gaipa (ไก่ป่า).

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.3 [3I4] 2.14

Gaipa's name is quite unusual (even Director Aof's good friend and sometime GMMTV director Jojo Tichakorn has tweeted about how wild it was, if I remember correctly). Because of this, I think it's very much a deliberate choice. The meaning of Gaipa's name also reinforces the idea of Jim the moonlight chicken because it brings up a very interesting contrast.

The word gaipa (ไก่ป่า) actually refers to this handsome beast:

(above) Red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) – photo by Francesco Veronesi on the Wikipedia article linked here, and image license linked here

It's not quite correct to call this bird a chicken (which is domesticated fowl) – this picture is of Gallus gallus or the red junglefowl, the wild ancestor of all domesticated chickens, that still lives in forests throughout Southeast Asia (including Thailand) and parts of South Asia. Bold, resourceful and adaptable, it's also commonly seen in urban areas that neighbor its natural habitat (while still remaining very much an untamed bird).

In Gaipa's name, the gai part (ไก่, sometimes rendered phonetically as kai) does mean chicken in Thai, but the pa part (ป่า) means forest or wild. So Gaipa's name translates to something like forest fowl or wild chicken, that is the wild counterpart to domesticated chickens.

I suspect Gaipa's character may have been originally written as more flamboyant, and thus the image of the loud, colorfully bold (and sometimes squawky) red junglefowl would have been a better fit. Red junglefowl will also freely pursue and interbreed with domestic chickens (they are basically the same species, like wolves are to dogs; it's just that domestic chickens also have some genetic input from the closely-related grey, green and Sri Lankan junglefowl, and are more placid than their wild versions). With this in mind, Gaipa's romantic interest in Jim also makes sense (since Jim is the domesticated version of the wild gai).

Part of me wishes they had gone with a campier portrayal for Gaipa though – it might have been a chance to make up for the negative depiction of the screamy, predatory Green in 2gether. But at the same time it would have been a really delicate balance to get right (and flubbing it would ironically have become replication rather than reparation). So maybe Director Aof just didn't want to take the risk and opted for Khaotung's sweeter, more restrained rendering instead. 🤷‍♂️ I'm still a fan of what they've done nonetheless. 👍

OK, so on to Wen's name, and his is thought-provoking for the different questions and themes it evokes. The analysis of his name is so long that I've moved it away into its own post (linked here).

(top) Moonlight Chicken Ep.5 [4/4] 14.21; (bottom) Moonlight Chicken Ep.5 [1I4] 16.20

Keeping it simpler, Wen's name can be linked (via the wn that we see on his phone at Ep.5 [1I4] 16.20) to a political era in Thailand where opposing camps were known as the Red Shirts and the Yellow Shirts. The Red Shirts were identified with the country's lifeblood (its rural poor), and passionately championed the cause of the impoverished farmer. The Yellow Shirts were drawn from the urban elite (including intellectuals and royalists) and because of their origins among the intelligentsia can be seen as representing the message that passion should always be tempered with reason.

Not taking sides here, but very broadly I think that, based on the above, the colors yellow and red (including their various shaded incarnations like mustard/saffron for yellow and rust-brown for red) represent the different pulls of head versus heart, and we are shown both Jim and Wen struggling with knowing the right thing to do, and staying too long in the wrong situation because of emotional attachment (e.g., Jim with the diner, and Wen in his messy relationship with Alan). And we see Jim and Wen wearing more of each color at different stages of their journey, before they come to their final decisions allowing wisdom to prevail over their emotions. 💖 There's more detail in the write-up linked here if you want to read more (but it's a long post and a bit of a trudge to read, I must say 🤷‍♂️).

(top) Moonlight Chicken Ep.5 [1I4] 11.35; (bottom) Moonlight Chicken Ep.8 [3I4] 7.33

Anyway, I don't have any analysis for other names like Jim's and Alan's, so I'll end this write-up here. Maybe will expand more on these and other names after I've rewatched a few times! 💖

[bunnakit]

7, 9 and 17 for the BL ask game :D! 💙

🌸 bl ask game 🌸

7) Top 5 BL - You can find my full answer for that here!

Since I've answered a good chunk of these questions I'm going to start rolling a random dice until I get one I haven't answered so I'm not short changing anyone.

22) Favorite Veteran (Dice Roll) - I think Max Nattapol. I'm so sad we won't be seeing him with Tul anymore but I'll absolutely be watching Red Peafowl just for him (and Boun.) Max just brings so much to his characters and he's so expressive - His acting was even convincing me to keep watching Together With Me which is just terrible. (Thank you @sparklyeyedhimbo for convincing me that was the devil talking.) I also respect that Max just says shit sometimes. Big me energy, I respect that kind of feralness in a man.

9) Currently Watching - Oh shit! I'm actually kind of in limbo right now. I just finished Triage and that was a lot to digest and sit with so I needed some time to just soak all that in. I've also begun reading Manner of Death (very slowly) and between that, making gifs, writing some new fanfics, and trying to be a good employee at my day job I've been taking a little break. (Though my friend and I are doing a full Triage binge watch tomorrow, hehe.) My 'to-watch' list is huge and I'm always looking for recommendations! (I'm incredibly susceptible to peer pressure.)

17) Best Kiss - You can find my full answer for that one here!

25) Favorite Friends (Dice Roll) - I think a really obvious one is Rain and Sky from Love in the Air but I'm going to go in a little different direction and say I love the friendship between Wen and Gong in Moonlight Chicken. One of my favorite things about Moonlight Chicken was the way Gong tells Wen the truth and doesn't always jump to his rescue. I love that at some point Gong says no, you can't come stay with me, you and Alan need to figure your shit out and stop doing this to each other. That's a real fucking friend, that's someone that loves you enough to tell you the things you don't want to hear and push you to do the things you don't want to do. I adore Gong and I definitely have a gifset planned for him in the future.

[rayandgay]

wdad? = what did alan do?

[heretherebedork]

To watch Wen and Alan at their first anniversary and now, as they change and grow as people, as they make choices for love but also for themselves, the way they didn't just suddenly fall apart but slowly, steadily, grew apart instead.

It's watching love as it happens and as it changes and the way it doesn't always last forever but only as long as it lasts.

And it's watching Wen working so hard to break them up while Alan fights so hard for a relationship that's over and that isn't working and hasn't been working for a long time.

Wen is out of love but Alan is still in love and sometimes that just happens, that's how a relationship goes, when everything turns into a fight and you can't talk anymore and the love just isn't there, the spark isn't there...

And it feels out of the blue to one person but to the other its' been building for so long that it feels inevitable.

(Then Wen goes to Jim because he's moved on and he wants nothing more than to feel the kind of love he knew before all over again, the find that feeling of home that he lost with Alan.)

[lurkingshan]

Oh Wen, Wen, Wen. You ended a five year relationship without a concrete reason - just said you didn’t love him anymore, continued living with him, kept having sex with him, and then got mad when he was confused and thought it could still work.

No wonder Alan is a fucking wreck.

[scrumptiousstuffs]

👀 I spy 2 rings….

“I think you should stay over. If I was you, I will have stayed too.” Jim to Wen

Moonlight Chicken, episode 6

Well, Alan is definitely not over Wen. Wearing his ex ring and getting uncharacteristically drunk…

Wen clearly still cares for him (hard not to, after being together for 5 yrs) and Jim being the mature adult he is, very much aware that both Wen and Alan likely needs this so that they can hopefully further talk it out and at least repair their fractured friendship

[vegaseatsass]

MLC 6 spoilers

Alright I just finished MLC ep6 with the shot of Alan wearing both fucking rings and the preview of Jim scolding Li Ming for resembling himself too much and tumblr, I would like to submit as a ship for your approval: Jim/Alan. The two messiest and most stubborn sad gays ever. They can't stop being exactly who they are, and it's hurting everyone, v much especially including themselves

[littleragondin]

Oy, Gong, shit man... i'm not saying you should have immediately voluntereed to be Alan's caregiver but like. That little "come on that's on you" chin jerk toward Wen after all the time you spent telling him he has to make things clear? That he has to pull away for good? Not very cool of you sir.

(Don't get me started on the thinly veiled "well he did drink bc of you"...)

[onlyifyoubadd]

EEEPPP 😜 I can't get over how cheeky Wen is here!

[asexualannoyance]

does alan have any friends or family he can, like, talk to about his heartbreak???

[malepresentingleg]

Wen is seriously pissing me off with his hypocrisy. On the one hand, he's complaining about how he already told Alan off so why does he keep insisting? But on the other hand, he keeps insisting with Jim after Jim refused him!!!

And Alan does actually have grounds to want closure after a 5 year long relationship that Wen suddenly ended (there's nuance and Alan does seem aggressive so idk), whereas Jim and Wen had a one-night stand where Jim EXPLICITLY told him IN ADVANCE that nothing else will come of it.

[killiru]

Now let's talk about this scene

I love Gong very much (sorry for the terrible screenshots, lovey. You are more beautiful than these snapshots, my dear. I did you wrong). But what are your thoughts on what he's trying to tell Wen here? That as a drinker he would quickly find shelter in other apartments? Or that he would quickly fall back into old habits (means screwing, and we know they have.) with Alan? Or something else entirely? I'm not sure.

[ropebunnykant]

no cause they broke up in february, it’s now december. THEYVE BEEN LIVING TOGETHER FOR A YEAR DESPITE BEING BROKEN HP

[fulltimehabibti]

moonlight chicken just feels....so queer

it's wen and jim immediately clocking eachother and wen cruising jim, the alarm on wen's face when gong was being too loud in discussing gay sex, li ming's discomfort with the boys his age discussing dating and girls, heart acting a little too helpless so the cute boy at his house will focus his attention on him, having your siblings be homophobic but still expect you to step up for them......and these things are just all so subtle! they're not "teaching moments", they're just everyday life for a queer person.

[freensrcha]

I told Gong that we broke up. Did you bring me here to tell me that ?

MOONLIGHT CHICKEN | EPISODE 5

[chickenstrangers]

Wen as Observer in Moonlight Chicken

Something that really stood out to me on this rewatch of Moonlight Chicken is that Wen is always looking. He's always watching, very intently, and with so much yearning and vulnerability.

I remember being struck by Wen's eyes the first time I saw Moonlight Chicken, but on rewatch I realized it's because he's always looking. Unwavering. The camera is always watching Wen and Wen is always watching others. We are introduced to Wen with an extended shot of him gazing at Jim and Jim gazing back, and from that moment on, Wen does not stop looking.

Wen acts as the audience's surrogate in a lot of ways. He's new to the chicken diner ensemble, he's an outsider, he meets the rest of the characters along with us. The emphasis on Wen watching the other characters also underlines how Wen can be read as the point of view character, though not the main character (to the extent that the show has a single main character, which as an ensemble it doesn't really but Jim is the cornerstone for all the other characters). Because of this, there's a lot we don't get to know about Wen, a lot of the details of his life before coming to Pattaya and meeting Jim are vague, but we get to see a lot about the other characters through Wen's eyes.

Wen is often placed on the outside, watching. He is sometimes physically separated from the rest of the chicken diner family, looking on from a distance when he's with his other coworkers or watching while cleaning from the other side of the diner as Jim talks to Gaipa or Saleng. He's isolated, separate from the group, an intruder even. He wants community, a home, but also doesn't feel like he can have it yet, due to his job, due to Alan, and so he has his own walls up, casting himself as observer.

But the moments that really stick out to me are when he's looking at them close up, while sitting with them, or in Jim's case, often about two inches from his face. He's so blatant about it. But no matter how close he is to them, for a long time Wen still feels like an outsider looking in, wanting to be part of it but often just on the edges. There's a lot of loneliness and longing in these glances, wanting to see but also wanting to be seen in return. Wen asks Jim outright, teasing, "Can't I look at you?" but Jim just smiles and looks away.

Because he has that outside perspective, Wen's the first one to know about Li Ming and Heart, seeing them together in the food court and instantly recognizing their connection. He takes a photo of the two of them when they ask, highlighting his role as observer, acting as the camera lens. He doesn't tell Jim about seeing them together, and when Jim asks, he tells Jim he needs to pay more attention and listen more. Jim is too close to the situation to fully recognize what is happening, what his nephew is going through, but Wen notices.

Wen is always looking at Jim, and at the rest of Jim's (found) family, which is starkly contrasted by how he acts around Alan. The first time Alan is introduced, Wen can barely hold his eyes for most of the scene. The tables have turned and now Alan is the one looking, searching for the connection that has been lost. Looking back would reveal too much vulnerability for Wen, the love that isn't there anymore, and the guilt he feels. Until Wen gets mad, and then he locks eye contact. By the end of the show, however, as their relationship starts to heal and they are able to maybe actually be friends, they both look at each other more, without the intensity of before, but with comfort and familiarity.

Jim avoids long periods eye contact with Wen for much of the show, and though he looks back at Wen, he often quickly glances away. He can't look at Wen for too long because he has put up so many barriers between the two of them, not letting him get close. The way that Wen looks at Jim is completely open and inviting, begging him to look back, which Jim doesn't let himself do until the last few episodes. Gong warns Wen to just not make eye contact in order to avoid any emotional intimacy, but throughout the show we see that Wen is physically incapable of that. Wen doesn't want to put up those barriers between himself and others, and especially Jim, in just the same way that Jim is desperately clinging to those walls to protect himself, not ready for another love that might destroy him.

It isn't until the end, when Jim starts to open up and let Wen into his life, that Jim consistently looks back. Before this, it often became painful to see Wen looking so intently at Jim, putting it all out there, but not being fully seen in return, reciprocated. But they both desperately want to look. They're both lonely, even when surrounded by people, but they're unable to let each other in or be let in. There's so much yearning for that closeness, on both of their parts. They just need to be vulnerable and look back.